trampoline

A few weeks ago Tom and I put together the girls' 5th Birthday gift --- their trampoline!!  Overall the set-up went well but there were moments I couldn't believe how differently we go about doing a project.  Tom can look at things and pretty much know where they should go.  I prefer to read every single word of the directions at least a few times, and work in a sequential order.  That combo made for some interesting moments : )  Afterwards I told Tom I didn't think we should ever be on the Amazing Race together, and he told me he actually thought the opposite, that we would be a great team and do really well on the show!  That really made me laugh .....  it's so funny to me how at times we can look at the same situation so differently.

Despite our different approaches and our different perspectives we did get the trampoline put together and the girls were SOOOOOO  excited to jump on it.  Then Tom told them they would have to wear their bike helmets while jumping.  Oh yes.

Now this is another example of how Tom and I can look at things differently.  I LOVE how thoughtful Tom is and especially how protective he is of his daughters.  He loves them so much and even the thought of them getting hurt is too much for him.  But I really didn't think Zoe and Ella needed to wear helmets inside of their enclosed trampoline.  He admitted it might be an extra cautious safety precaution but he didn't care, he had heard too many stories of kids getting hurt on trampolines and he figured the helmets would at least protect them from bumping their heads hard if they jumped into each other.  I felt very strongly about establishing a few firm safety rules too (only three or four kids jumping at a time depending on their sizes, no flips in the air or tricks where kids could land on their necks, no jumping without supervision, those sorts of things), but I wasn't feeling the need for helmets.  I did support Tom's decision though, and let him know he was the one who would tell the girls.  We also agreed they only had to wear their helmets if they were jumping together, and once we felt comfortable they wouldn't need to wear them together either.

Their reaction to the helmet news was priceless.  Both of their eyes got really big, they looked at Tom, then at me, and then back at Tom.  Then Ella told him 'but we don't wear helmets when we jump on Mia's trampoline' (I had a feeling this sort of connection would come up .... it did make me smile).  Tom held his ground, explained his reasons and told them to show how cool he thinks it is to wear a helmet while jumping on the trampoline he would jump first (partially to make sure it didn't fall apart), and he would wear a helmet too.

Since Tom doesn't own his own helmet (I know .....), he wore one of the girls', and after he finished some beer (love Ella's expression, she couldn't believe the whole helmet rule or that her dad was wearing her pink bike helmet with a big flower on the front) ....

.... the girls watched with anticipation ....

.... as their dad took the first jumps on our new trampoline!!

Zoe got a big kick out of it all.  I think to a while for Ella not to be distracted by her dad wearing her helmet ....

When it was finally their turn they had a BLAST!!!!

And it didn't take long before Tom realized they could indeed jump safely without wearing their sweaty little bike helmets ....

And jump they did, and have been --- multiple times a day, every single day, except when it's been stormy.  No head bumps yet but lots of smiles and laughter!!